1. Was Heroes of Newerth your first game or did you play something before?
Ive been gaming since I was a couple of years old. Started off with the NES and SNES, got into PC gaming after Windows 95 was released and spent way too much time with titles like Red Alert, Heroes of Might, and Magic 1-3, Goldeneye on N64 etc. I played Counterstrike competitively very briefly, but didnt understand the concept of eSports back then. Around 2008 I started playing Red Alert 3 which was my first properly competitive game. I ran and defeated some of the top players on the ladder, who then helped me get integrated into the community and tournaments. I eventually held the #1 spot on the ladder and placed top 3 in dozens of tournaments, notably getting to travel to Gamescom 2009 in Germany for the Ladder Season 3 finals. Once the scene started to die and HoN came out, I made the swap with several other top players.

2. How did you get to HoN and into QsQ?
A good friend of mine recommended HoN - that had just come out in beta - to me and a couple of other RA3 players, and we started playing together. Most of us were familiar with DotA from way back so the premise was interesting. Eventually we enjoyed the game so much we stuck with it. As for QsQ, my old team disbanded after attending the DHS12 BYOC tournament and I was left floating across pubgames for a couple of months. After that NoVa made his post about holding tryouts and I decided to give it a shot. The lack of other junglers and my competitive experience was enough to get me through the early stages. After a while I reached a level of gameplay to be accepted into the team.

3. Recent events and tournaments have been a bit of a disappointment. Where do you see yourself and your team in the future?
It's been a long ride so far and I feel like we have already experienced a similiar slump. After the continuous rise in performance leading into DHW12 we had a terrible LAN performance and were on the verge of dropping to gold in the very first cycle of HoN Tour. A few weeks later we managed to bounce back up in cycle 3. In general we are a very mood-dependent team and our performance has a lot of ups and downs. I feel like if we can get things to click and fix our glaring issues over the coming weeks, we can still be considered a favorite for the 4th Vegas spot. We have already started trying around a lot with a different drafter, different ingame communicating and other aspects to fix the situation. We have stuck together through the bad times and will continue to do that. I cannot be certain when QsQ will be back on top, but we will get there.

4. Do you prefer to play as a jungler or second support? What do you think brings more to the table?
I don't really prefer one over the other; honestly it depends on the heroes for each role I get to choose from. I love playing Tempest, Parasite, Aluna, and Engineer pretty much every game. Other heroes can sometimes be a drag, especially Keeper of the Forest. The difference I see is that with a jungler I can have a more visible impact by solo pushing, ganking, and playing my game. The secondary support role for me is more about helping my teammates shine and trying to pave the way for them to take over the game, doing a lot of 'invisible' work behind the scenes, and basically catering to the needs of the three main farmers. Both roles are vital for the draft in question, but the jungler is able to operate succesfully independently

5. What do you think about the new heroes that entered the scene, like Rally and Ravenor? And what about those heroes that will enter tournament mode soon like Oogie and Pearl?
I don't really have any burning feelings about balance as I don't give it much thought; everyone has the same heroes to work with so it doesent matter to me. Its always nice to see new heroes picked up, whether it's newer releases such as Rally or oldschool comebacks like Hag. Rally is an example of a well-rounded hero that can compete with the traditional heroes in his respective role. It's hard to gauge how heroes that will get released into competitive are received. Solstice and Oogie are examples of extremely strong heroes that will likely be nerfed before joining the lockpick pool. Personally I'm looking forward for Lodestone and Salomon to be released, as im a sucker for strength heroes!

6. Are there any other roles you can play well other than jungle and 2nd support? Any role or hero you really hate to play?
I used to play a suicide role in DmSn, the team I really got into competitive HoN through, alongside players like Caspae, Khezu and Insania. Later on I broadened my role into an all-rounder in iPel, playing both carries, solo mid and solo sidelane. My hero pool was pretty much anything that doesent ward or jungle lol. It was only after iPel disbanded that I started mass playing tmm with junglers and fell in love with that role. Nowadays the only new role I would feel comfortable with would be suicide. As for what I hate, hardsupport is really a pain in the ass for me, simply because I always seem to run out of item slots for wards and hate constantly using the courier for them. In general I prefer to kill heroes over creeps, so hard farmers arent my cup of tea.

7. What were your best and worst experiences in/with HoN so far?
Best experience by far was DHW12; getting to know the people, their personalities outside of the game, and in general having a good time and partying despite our bad performance. Landing a huge Tempest ultimate also usually manages to give me some serious nerd chills! My only bad experiences with HoN are when people trashtalk me. I'm thick skinned enough to shrug it off, but I don't understand how people that I've never talked to feel the need to talk shit. Fortunately it's pretty rare and overall I find the community pretty friendly if you treat them likewise.

8. I have experienced you as the Zen-master of QsQ, always calm and levelheaded, no matter how intense the stress and how bad things get. How do you do it?
I like to think it's got something to do with age, seeing how I've calmed down over the years. I just literally stopped giving a fuck at some point. Occasionally I need to give a whooping to my desk if I make a dumb feed, but that's that, the game continues and getting mad won't make it any easier. The game isn't enjoyable with a bad atmosphere and communication will suffer. It's also simply beneficial to stay in a good mood and try to get teammates into the same groove. If ther'es excess frustration I just take care of that after the matches in my own ways. Feel good, play good, is the name of the game.

9. What about your personal life, what does your life outside the game look like? Any plans for your future?
Right now it's not too exciting. I try to go out in the weekends but it's pretty hard with HoN Tour sometimes taking until 2am on Saturdays. Friday is the party night, although I would prefer two. My daily routine basically consists of reading, gaming, eating, working out, and spending an evening with friends or having lunch with my family. I took this semester off from university (economics) and live alone, so it's pretty quiet right now. I always look forward to the summer because there's so much more to do daily; the cold and grey weather just keeps people locked indoors around this time of year. Like I said, I'm studying economics but I don't really have a passion for the subject and my future is pretty much open. I'm pretty well set financially so I'm not in a hurry to plan things and get into the normal routine society expects. Right now I'm just enjoying the days as they come.

10. For all the new and not yet professional players, any advice you can give how to survive in the jungle and be the best help for your team?
The jungler has perhaps the best overview of the map since he doesn't need to focus in last-hitting and outplaying a human opponent on the lane. This means the jungler should be giving the team a lot of information that they would otherwise miss, such as enemy movement, rune spawns, gank opportunities etc. Finding the correct routine to move around between camps is necessary to maximize farm, having it planned out means you dont wander around the jungle mindlessly and can focus on looking for openings to gank. Covering runes and learning early game timings for items and pushes is also important. Dont be disheartened by the occasional death to neutrals.

11. Any shoutouts or things you want to say to the community?
Shoutout to iPel, LIONS, lomaposse, Fiask0, gemini pickers and community, stay mannered.

Great thanks for the detailed interview to Malle, next week we'll take a look at the sometimes MVP, sometimes not-so-MVP suicide and newly appointed drafter of the team, Jonassomfan!